1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a modular chemical analysis system. More specifically, the field of the invention is an improved automatic nephelometer apparatus and a sampling apparatus for preparing sample solutions to be processed by the nephelometer apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, various automatic and semi-automatic chemical analysis systems have been proposed which typically utilize light absorbance measurement techniques.
Also, heretofore, there have been proposed nephelometer apparatus which operate on the basis of measuring scattered light when a light beam or laser beam is passed through a sample solution. Such previously proposed nephelometer apparatus included a cuvette with a sample therein which was inserted by hand into a measuring block, the light scatter measurement then being performed, followed by removing the cuvette by hand to insert another cuvette with a sample solution therein. Since this was done manually, it took some time to perform.
Also, heretofore, transporters have been proposed for transporting sample cup cartridges having five sample cups therein in a continuous horizontal path.
As will be described in more detail hereinafter, the modular chemical analysis system and the apparatus comprising some of the present invention enable one to use standard transporters and an existing nephelometer portion together with a known microprocessor to automatically prepare sample solutions and automatically make relative light scatter measurements followed by automatic calculations of the concentration of a substance being assayed from the relative light scattered measurements. In this way a quicker and more efficient processing of sample solutions, typically blood serum solutions, is made to determine concentrations of various substances such as proteins, antibodies, etc., in the blood serum.